After The End

by Jamie Campbell

  “Maisy!”

  I get up on my knees. It takes every piece of energy I have but I do it. I need to see with my own eyes so I know it’s not just my brain tricking me. I scan the beach, searching for the face I believe belongs to that voice.

  “Maisy!”

  I see him.

  He’s staggering along the sand, trying to find purchase on the driest of grains. His hair is straggled, matted down with sweat, blood? I don’t know.

  My legs can’t be trusted to stand just yet so I remain kneeling on my knees. I wave my hands around and hope this isn’t just some cruel prank my eyes are playing on me.

  “Garlind!” I yell.

  He stops and finds me among the debris and bodies. It takes a second for us to lock eyes together. I can read everything behind his brown irises. The most I see is relief.

  He runs toward me. I’m frozen to the spot as I try to truly believe what I’m seeing. It’s Garlind and he’s okay. He’s alive. He makes running seem difficult as he barrels toward me. His exhaustion is written in every stiff muscle he has to force to move.

  “Maisy,” he moans when he finally reaches me.

  He falls down to his knees and pulls me into his arms. Even as I hold him, I wonder if he is real. This could all be a dream as I lie unconscious on the sand.

  I can’t believe it.

  He nuzzles into my neck so I can feel his warm breath against my skin. I hold him so tightly that I’m never going to let him go. I can’t risk losing him again. We always have to be this close from now on. Any space between us cannot be permitted.

  Tears slide down my cheeks. The numbness is ebbing away and I’m melted by the boy I love. He’s bringing me back to life, restoring all that hope that has kept me alive for eighteen years. I wet his shoulder with my weeping.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay,” he whispers.

  “I thought you were dead,” I squeak out through the tears. “I thought I lost you.”

  “I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

  “Neither could I.”

  He pulls back but I hold onto his arms so he can’t leave me. His beautiful brown eyes look so different compared to before. He looks sad, wise, and worried. “Some aliens broke through the frontline and went up to the hill. I followed them so they couldn’t get to the missiles. It was…hard to stop them.”

  “You have to use their own guns. It’s the only way.”

  He kisses my cheeks, one at a time. “I know. I heard you. You saved my life. Again.”

  I shake my head. If anything, he’s saved mine every single day since leaving the bunker. I also know he’s too perfect to believe that. “There’s so much that needs to be done now. So many people to bury. The aliens might come back.”

  “Shhh,” he soothes. “We’ll take one step at a time. The Colonel made plenty of plans.”

  “He’s dead.” I say it softly but there is no way to hide the harshness of the fact.

  Garlind looks heavenward before his gaze returns to me. His jaw clenches tightly. There are probably a hundred curse words he’s dying to let out but he’s too much of a gentleman to let them loose. “He didn’t deserve that.”

  “No, he didn’t. Not at all.”

  “He’d want us to continue with his plan.”

  “I know,” I admit.

  “Let’s just take a day first. Tomorrow, we can start working.”

  I nod and we stand together. My legs aren’t shaking anymore. My strength has been restored—a little bit of it, anyway. If I could sleep for a week, it would be even better.

  I look around at all the soldiers on the beach. Everyone is wearing the same worn expression. Nobody knows what we’re supposed to do now. The one man that always had the answers is gone, scattered amongst the dead.

  He trusted me to be a leader within his army. I owe it to him to keep myself together for a while longer. I raise my voice as loudly as I can. “Everyone go into the forest and get some sleep. Help those that are injured. Any remaining medics are to attend to those that need it most. We’ll start the clean up tomorrow. Stay safe and report for duty at nine hundred hours.”

  It’s almost like they relish the order. If someone else is directing them, they don’t need to think too hard. I know that feeling very, very well. Together, we head toward the forest. Some help others to walk through their injuries. Colonel Hanson ordered a group of medics to remain in the forest, away from the fight. As long as the aliens didn’t get to them, they should be ready to mend to all injured. They are going to have a long night ahead of them.

  “What happened to your shoulder?” Garlind asks as he spots the blood stain on my shirt. “Do you need a medic yourself?”

  “It’s just a flesh wound. It has stopped bleeding. I’ll be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.” I’m not going to tie up a medic when there are so many worse injuries than mine. In the morning, I’ll ask them for a plaster or bandage. It will be more than enough.

  We head toward the forest, leaning on one another for support. Garlind has blood splattered on his clothes but I can tell it doesn’t belong to him. Thankfully, we’ve come through the worst of it relatively unscathed.

  In body, anyway. Our minds are full of wounds.

  Those ones are much harder to fix.

  We find a tree with long branches and thick with leaves that we make our home under for the remainder of the night. We don’t have anything to make our sleep comfortable but our exhaustion makes up for it. I could fall asleep anywhere right now.

  All I need is Garlind anyway. He insists on checking the wound in my shoulder before he’s satisfied we can sleep. I crawl into his arms and make myself comfortable there. My head lies on his chest, hearing his heartbeat as it steadily thumps away.

  I fall asleep within minutes.

  I don’t dream.

  It’s the sun that wakes me in the morning. My whole body is stiff and sore. My hands are raw from holding and firing the gun for so long last night.

  Worse than the physical pain are the mental images that come flooding back. We have a lot of dead to bury today and we can’t disrespect any of them by delaying any further.

  Garlind stirs awake when I sit up. “Was it all real?” he asks.

  I can understand how he feels. It all feels like we might have lived through a nightmare on the beach. “It’s real. We have a lot to get done today. People will be looking for our leadership.”

  He nods with resignation. “Better get onto it then.”

  The smell of breakfast cooking surprises me. I know we all travelled with enough food to get us through a couple of months, but I didn’t expect anyone to be up and cooking. I guess some people work to cope with things. It’s best to keep busy some times.

  We follow the delicious food smell to a makeshift kitchen in the middle of the forest. Three soldiers are in their uniforms and working tirelessly to feed everyone.

  I greet everyone we pass, taking in their faces so I know who survived last night. I’m relieved to see Maggie amongst them. She was the first person who spoke to us like we were regular people when we arrived at Fort Indiantown Gap. I hold a soft spot in my heart for her.

  Everyone moves carefully, just like I do. There probably isn’t a muscle amongst us which isn’t straining and sore today. We fought hard last night and that is going to take a toll on us for at least a few days.

  We eat a fry-up of vegetables from the base garden. They taste spectacular. Whatever spices they used to jazz up the flavor works wonders on my taste buds.

  I feel more human after I’ve eaten.

  I’m ready for the day now. A wash would be perfect to start the morning but we don’t have any bathroom facilities. We’re only going to get dirtier anyway. Maybe I can take a swim in the ocean after the work is done. Would the salt water be filled with acid too?

  When we’re all finished eating, I address the crowd. “Our only duty today is to bury our dead. I need volunteers to dig the graves and th
e rest of us will honor our heroes by taking them from the beach and identifying them before they are laid to rest.”

  It’s not difficult finding volunteers. The burliest of men and women offer to dig the graves. I organize them into two teams so they can rest and not break their backs by shoveling dirt all day.

  We set off for the beach immediately. Nobody wants to do this job so we’re keen to get it over and done with. Once we deal with the dead, we can handle what we’re going to do with the living.

  I dread seeing the beach. As we get closer, my stomach clenches tighter and tighter. It was bad enough seeing last night and I know it’s going to be worse in the harsh light of the day.

  The trees part and reveal the sand. The tide hasn’t come up yet so a layer of blood still coats the grains. It’s just as bad as I remember it. Maybe even worse now the bodies have been lying here for a few hours. We need to get them out of the sun before the smell gets so bad we can’t get near them.

  “Take them one at a time,” I bellow.

  A male soldier stops beside me. “What about the aliens? There’s got to be two of them to every one of ours.”

  There is no hesitation in my response. “Leave them. The tide can take them away later.”

  He nods and relays the message down the line until we’re all on the same page. Cleaning up the human bodies is going to take us all day. We won’t have time to deal with the alien corpses. They never bothered with ours after they killed us.

  Clearing away the bodies is just as heartbreaking as I expected it to be. Some of them are so badly injured we have to fish around for their ID tags to identify them.

  Garlind takes Colonel Hanson’s body away first. He deserves the utmost of respect so this is all we can do for him. He will be buried first and I pray he can rest in peace knowing we won this battle thanks to his carefully thought-out plans.

  The day blurs together as the sun rises higher and makes the temperature spike. It’s hard, hot, and heavy work as we clear the beach one at a time. There are so many more dead than living and each one reminds me of the price they paid for our victory.

  I wish there was more we could do for them but there isn’t. It’s not feasible to take their bodies to a proper cemetery and give them an individual service. All we can do is bury them amongst the trees and say a few words at the end of the day.

  My gaze keeps roaming to the sky. Every time, I expect to see the ships still hovering close by. They could come back at any time, maybe with even more aliens than before. I hope not but I can’t stop the worry playing on my mind.

  It’s almost midnight by the time we finish with the last body. The tide has already started to clean the beach of the aliens and all that blood. Perhaps in the future the beach will look normal again. Maybe people won’t even know of the horrible things that happened here.

  We all collapse into sleep as soon as we’re back in the camp area. After testing the water, I managed to wash my hands and feet in the ocean before returning but I can still smell blood on my clothes. I’m not going to feel clean for a very long time.

  Morning comes too soon with its bright and hot shining sun. I don’t issue any orders today. Everyone can do their own thing and take some time to grieve and recover. We are the survivors but it feels like we need the most healing in order to go on.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I say to Garlind after breakfast. I can’t sit still. It feels like I’m wasting time if I just have to sit. And then my mind wanders. I’d rather keep busy so I don’t have to think too hard and can block out all the memories.

  He takes my hand and we set off for the town area. This is the second time I’ve been to Charleston but I haven’t seen the whole town area yet. The aliens had full control over most of it before so getting anywhere near it was suicide.

  I’m surprised to see most of the buildings still standing, like nothing has changed. They aren’t even covered with vines and foliage like the rest of the cities seem to be. The aliens may have claimed this part for themselves but they did look after it. I didn’t know they could be so tidy.

  The buildings and houses are beautiful here. They look so old fashioned and full of character. Garlind said the tourists used to come to this spot and I can understand why. It’s not difficult to picture people casually strolling along the old markets and beautiful streets.

  “We could stay here, if you want,” Garlind says.

  I shake my head. “Too many memories. I want to go somewhere that reminds me of peace, not war.”

  “We’ll find a place like that.”

  “I hope so.”

  I offer him a smile which he mirrors. It still hasn’t sunk in yet that we can actually plan a future. We fought hard for it and now it’s going to be a reality. It seems too good to be true.

  Our walk takes us further into the town and to the area that is more industrial. Warehouses and very large stores line the wide streets. They obviously aren’t as old as the downtown area but we might be able to find stores of supplies here.

  We go through a few of the warehouses and find them largely empty. It’s still worth checking them, though. They would have been full before the world ended all those years ago.

  The fifth warehouse stops us in our tracks. Like all the others, it isn’t locked on the outside so we wander inside. Instantly, a horrible stench hits my nose and makes me gag. I cover my mouth and nose with my hand but the smell still assaults me.

  It’s not just the reek of death here, but human excrement as well. It’s every bad smell a human can make all wrapped into one. Urine, sweat, feces, decomposition, blood, vomit. It’s the scent of a nightmare.

  I look at Garlind as he looks at me. We don’t dare open our mouths to talk but we don’t have to. A slight nod is all it takes to communicate that we have to investigate. Our conscience won’t allow us to turn around and pretend we didn’t see this place.

  Our steps are careful and measured as we enter. There still could be aliens here, completely unaware of what happened at the beach. I kick myself for not bringing weapons with me. All the alien guns were rounded up and kept at camp—just in case. I should have thought to bring at least one with us.

  Large skylights in the ceiling of the warehouse give us plenty of sunlight to see with. It also intensifies the smell. I want to turn around and run but keep going anyway.

  Walls of corridors have been erected. They only go as high as an ordinary wall so there is a large gap between where they end and the actual ceiling.

  As we delve deeper into the maze of corridors, noise starts filtering in. At first, it’s just the sound of movement, of feet shuffling and the occasional cough. The further we go, the more voices we hear.

  There are people here.

  No clicking from aliens, just voices that speak English. It’s only a low murmur, but easily identifiable as human. They don’t sound happy, whoever they are.

  We come to a set of double doors that are locked. I press my ear against the wood but hear nothing on the other side. The humans can’t be in this room. Still, we need to know what’s inside. If it was worth locking, then it’s worth investigating.

  The lock is some kind of electronic system. The aliens must have found a way to power the warehouse without ordinary electricity. There might be a generator somewhere, perhaps they used solar energy, or something else humans haven’t thought of yet.

  Garlind looks at the lock and then starts to press buttons. He tries all different combinations before the red lights blinks to green. His face splits in two with a grin. “Bingo.”

  “How’d you do that?” I ask, impressed.

  “The code is a pattern. I just found the most pressed buttons and tried every combination. The aliens aren’t as smart as they think they are.”

  Or Garlind is just very clever. I think that plays a big part in our luck too.

  He swings the door open and I immediately wish we’d kept on walking.

  Chapter 22

  I know what is causing the worst of th
e smell now. Bodies are piled up in every part of the warehouse room. The space is about as big as a house and every inch is filled with corpses.

  Vomit rises in my throat and knocks on my back teeth. I can’t hold it in. I double over and throw up against the wall—a tiny space where there isn’t a body.

  I face the painted white wall and try to compose myself. I don’t want to turn around. I can’t face all those corpses again. They were all people with stories and lives and futures. They didn’t deserve this kind of ending.

  The aliens are monsters. If I was ever in doubt about killing them last night on the battlefield, I’m no longer. They deserved their fate. They came here and took our planet from us, doing unspeakable things to humans, and then killing without prejudice.

  We could never be like them. It’s not that we lack their technology—because we do—but because we have a soul. We have empathy, we have standards. We couldn’t commit genocide on a whole planet of people.

  “We should leave,” Garlind says softly. He places a gentle hand on my shoulder. “There is nothing we can do to help these people, but there could be others here.”

  I nod but still don’t turn around.

  I slide sideways, careful not to disturb any of the bodies, and find the door. I’ve never been happier to leave a room before. The smell outside is marginally better than in that room but I will never be able to rid myself completely of the stench.

  We hurry down the hallway where the noises get louder. I’m certain Garlind was right and there are people here—humans that have somehow survived this place.

  Stopping at the next door, I press my ear against the wood and hear voices on the other side. They are little more than moans and groans, but it’s enough to know there is movement behind it.

  Garlind weaves his magic on the lock until it beeps and the green light turns on. He hesitates with his hand on the handle for just a few moments, steeling up enough courage to deal with whatever we are about to see on the other side.

  I have to take a deep breath myself. There could be anything on the other side of this door. Chances are it’s nothing good. I don’t think I have enough food left in my stomach to vomit again.